Londoners Lose If the Tories Run Boris For Mayor

The BBC’s Nick Robinson reports that Tory chiefs are talking up Boris Johnson as potential candidate for Mayor of London.

The suggestion has previously been made by some party activists on Conservative Home where it’s often dismissed as unrealistic – and for good reason.

Boris is a lot of fun on his gameshow appearances and my suspicion has long been that the buffoon-like persona is just a carefully crafted act to help him stand out from the crowd but either way it’s too embeded in the public psyche to make him a credible candidate for such a large job.

Anyone who thinks incumbent Ken Livingstone is sometimes irresponsible in his utterances is hardly going to find what they’re looking for in Boris.

Increasingly it seems the Cameron project will fail to offer Londoners a candidate likely to pose a credible alternative to Mr Livingstone – if this proves to be the case the public, who are entitled at every election to have a choice between equally credible candidates, will be the losers.

This failure also reflects badly on Cameron’s desire for the voters to see him as a realistic candidate for PM – if he can’t attract viable candidates for such a powerful role what does it say about the makeup of any future Cameron cabinet?

PS: We’re sure all our readers will want to join with us in wishing Nick Boles a speedy recovery after he left the race to become Tory candidate after being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease.